Designers of consumer appliances, and specifically those involved with the design and manufacture of gas ranges, are constantly striving to improve the efficiency and reduce the cost of these designs. One such area of intense study involves the surface burners on consumer gas ranges. Specifically, the burner efficiency of heat transferred to the surface of the pan or skillet is of great interest. A typical burner assembly produces a plurality of individual flames resulting from the ignition of gaseous fuel ported from the burner assembly through a plurality of burner ports around the side periphery of the burner assembly. While this effectively transfers heat to the bottom cooking surface of the utensil, it does so in a point-wise ring fashion as a direct result of the type of flame produced thereby. This type of burner produces a plurality of individual hot spots on the bottom surface of the cooking utensil from which heat must be radiated to cook the food.
A burner design which seeks to improve the cooking efficiency of a gas range includes, in addition to the plurality of gaseous fuel ports on the outside periphery of the burner assembly, an interior donut hole area which also includes a plurality of gaseous fuel outlet ports. During the cooking operation, the gaseous fuel exiting the outlet ports around the outer periphery of the burner are ignited and provide heat to the bottom surface of the cooking utensil in much the same manner as a conventional burner. However, in addition to this area of heat transfer, this type of burner also allows flames to be generated within the donut hole portion in the center of the burner to allow heat to be transferred to the center bottom surface of the cooking utensil within the outer ring normally associated with output ports located on the outer periphery of the burner. While this burner design greatly increases the efficiency of the range top cooking, a problem exists with the ignition system for both areas of gaseous fuel flow.
Prior burner designs of this type have utilized separate spark ignition modules for each area of gaseous fuel release to ignite the gaseous fuel exiting the gaseous fuel ports in proximity thereto. However, in the highly priced competitive and cost sensitivity industry of consumer gas ranges, the inclusion of separate electronic ignition modules for both areas of gaseous fuel ignition unacceptable increases the cost of this component of the gas range. Other systems to resolve this problem have included crossover slots or other means for carrying a flame across the burner top from the outer periphery to the inner donut hole section to allow ignition of the gaseous fuel flowing therein. However, such a burner design also increases the cost of manufacture of these types of burners as well as reducing the reliability of ignition within the inner donut hole area due to contamination within the crossover slot.